I have shown all the standard German infantry in the last few posts it’s time to show the support units that I have to work with them as well. This is not a comprehensive list of all the support option possible (I’m not sure such a thing even exists and definitely don’t need it) but just the ones I have painted up. I likely should look at getting some anti-tank guns at some point but buying them is fairly low priority at this point. My German army can use tanks for that. I have enough of those yet to paint to make up for any shortfalls in anti-tank weapons.

The first group to display are a couple of infantry guns. The Germans used these all through the war and although not great they do provided good direct fire HE support for infantry companies. I just have two of these and that’s enough, as I don’t see these are battle winners but more a standard support option.Next we have a couple of Anti-aircraft Flack guns. Neither of these weapons are especially great, certainly not prefect as a more generic weapon vs. Infantry as Hollywood often shows them used. Private Ryan being a classic example of AA guns in movies being used for direct fire. The single barrel limits the amount of lead they will throw into the air. That said they are still very useful and needed in games to help the Germans keep the allied air superiority at bay, especially in the later war period.Actually, the ones above are such an old Battlefront kit I could not even find them on the Battlefront web site! Seems they have been replaced. The barrels in both sets of AA models are very thin so I’ll need to be careful moving these around. I decided to paint the slightly lighter caliber ones Flack 36’s on their transport trailer (shown above) in a typical early war grey/blue amd the Flack 38’s below more beige. But either colour could be seen at any period of the war after approx 1941 to my understanding. So I will be happy to field both units as needed.Following on from those, I have a set of 4 HMG/MMG’s on tripods. This unit will likely see quite a bit of use as the German MG34/42 weapons were some of the best in the war. These units in combination with the LMG heavy infantry squads can make very powerful fields of fire for the allies in both offensive and defensive games. The model groups come in 2 poses – set up to fire with the tripods and moving. I will be try not to confuse the moving ones with infantry units. I suspect I’ll be using these quite a lot in games though to ensure the best firepower for Germans.Below we have something I had to look up and do research on. To identify it I asked on the LAF forum and was provided a great starting point for this. It’s an early war Anti-tank weapon a 8.8-cm Raketenwerfer 43 “Puppchen” – an 88mm rocket launcher. This was phased out with the introduction of the real man portable anti-tank weapons (the panzerschreck and panzerfaust) and dificulties getting the raw materials for the ammo as the war went on. However, it is a cool thing to have around for early/mid war games. Along with that I have a base of the anti-tank rifles. I don’t really like these models but I doubt I’ll use these that often in a game anyway. Early war they may have their use and they can be effective vs. unarmored vehicles but I can’t see them being really effective. The last two support units I have are 2 medium mortars and some light mortars. The medium mortars are a common weapon for the Germans and often used by infantry companies as their attached artillery support. With three man teams and decent caliber weapons mean these can be very useful in such a role, depending on the rules set of course. For the Battlegroup game these seem to be about the largest indirect weapon which is worth having on the table.Like many forces German infantry platoons often had small 5cm mortars. Providing relative short range but reasonable HE capability these can be useful in games – or fairly useless. I believe that reflects their real world results as well. I have a couple of bases of these and in the centre a command group of three figs I have not shown so far. I don’t believe the mortars were that common in the mid/late war but I have found them fairly ineffective in games anyway when using the Soviet forces version of these.So there we are a very decent selection of German infantry support groups.

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About mellis1644

A painter and gamer who has no illusions about being the best painter but likes to play with decently painted toys and have fun gaming